Watching the Indianapolis Colts be dragged around and punished while looking totally inept in a 34-7 loss at Houston on Sunday should have made us appreciate New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees even more. That's not saying that New Orleans would disintegrate if it was without their Pro Bowl quarterback, like Indianapolis did, and likely will continue to do, without Peyton Manning against the Houston Texans.
The accepted consensus is that no player means more to his team than does Manning, and if Indianapolis season-opening in a 34-7 loss wasn't all the proof necessary to sway the debate, it was a pretty significant chunk of evidence.
But it sure can't be understated how much more comfortable Saints fans are allowed to feel -- and Colts fans were allowed to feel -- when their most indispensable player takes snaps and ensures that his team will have a chance to win.
It can't be overlooked how important a decent NFL quarterback is to his team and how critical an elite one is if a team is going to have any chance to consistently win games and challenge for titles.
Think about it. Of the myriad injuries the Saints have endured since Brees joined the franchise as a free agent, there never has been a feeling that New Orleans was hopeless because Marques Colston, Reggie Bush, Pierre Thomas, Tracy Porter or Darren Sharper missed one game, or several games. There never was the feeling that the Saints couldn't even compete because a regular wasn't wearing his helmet and pads.
The reason for that is because Brees always has been healthy enough to dress and play.
It's because with Brees, the feeling always has been that the Saints have a chance and most of the time, it's been that they have a really good chance, to win.
The Colts don't have that chance to win big without Manning. They're going to struggle to win small.
Admirers and critics long have made lighthearted comments about his commands and changes and gesticulations at the line of scrimmage, but it's no joke that entering this season, Indianapolis had had nine consecutive seasons of at least 10 wins. From 2003-09, the Colts won at least 12 games each season. By far, it's the franchise's best run since moving from Baltimore to Indianapolis in 1984.
All of that success has occurred during the Manning years -- including the Colts' Super Bowl XLI victory in 2006 -- and much of it has occurred when the Colts haven't had a powerhouse defense and sometimes, when they haven't had an adequate running game.
Does any of that sound familiar?
It should.
It's a pretty parallel circumstance to what has happened with a certain local NFL franchise since 2006, when it landed Brees, its franchise quarterback.
Clearly, the NFL has become a league in which a team no longer can win unless it has a quarterback who can carry it to the Super Bowl and, often, one who can shoulder the load and win that game once he leads his team there.
In the last 13 Super Bowls, standout quarterbacks were chosen game MVP eight times -- John Elway, Kurt Warner, Tom Brady (twice), Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, Brees and Aaron Rodgers. Three times, the guy who won was a wide receiver who played with a top-level quarterback -- Deion Branch (by Brady), Hines Ward and Santonio Holmes (by Pittsburgh's Ben Roethlisberger).
Not one of those teams would've been what it was without its quarterback.
The Colts, clearly, are lost without Peyton Manning. True, they might be an extreme case, considering their reliance on Manning and the obvious belief that he might never miss a game led them to forgo signing a decent backup or drafting a competent caddie. But, though the final score may have been a little more lopsided than expected, it's not like anyone expected the Colts to pull off an upset after luring Kerry Collins out of retirement to be their starter.
Would the Saints be similarly helpless without Brees?
Every bit, if the defense continues to be as compliant as it was in the season opener at Green Bay last Thursday night, when it yielded touchdown drives of 76, 80, 80 and 93 yards. But even if the defense stepped up, the Saints' offense is geared around a certain man pulling the trigger and -- all due respect to backup Chase Daniel -- Brees pulls it as effectively as anyone.
In New Orleans, Saints fans don't have to be told to appreciate Brees, the only quarterback in franchise history to play in two conference championship games and to win a Super Bowl.
But watching the Colts flop without Manning is a good reminder why they do, and should, appreciate him.
